Thomas L. Friedman worries "about what is happening to American politics" because of attempts to "destroy the legitimacy of another president." Agree or disagree?

Sept. 30, 2009

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Send to a friendThomas L. Friedman worries "about what is happening to American politics" because of attempts to "destroy the legitimacy of another president." Agree or disagree? Check out the new Health Care ArenaSept. 30, 2009

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It is very important to distinguish the legitimacy question from the assassination question. Given that there have been successful or unsuccessful assassination attempts on Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Malcolm X, Charles De Gaulle, Anton Cermak, George Moscone, Harvey Milk, Olof Palme, Anna Lindh, Yitzhak Rabin, Pim Fortuyn, and many others, there is very little basis for attributing such acts to particular political climates, times, or locations, and Friedman's causal claim seems strikingly weak. The question of what sets off the kind of unbalanced person who commits such acts is a difficult psychological one, and there is no reason to believe that Friedman, myself, or most psychologists have the answer.

The legitimacy question is very different, and is largely about the extent to which we accept the legitimacy -- the right to govern -- of those with whom we fervently disagree. But given that there were remarkably few legitimacy concerns even after the 2000 election, and given that those concerns evaporated surprisingly soon after that election, it seems wrong to equate the tone of political debate, including the nasty part of it, with legitimacy. There is an unfortunate decline in respect for those with whom we disagree, but equating that with a decline in legitimacy is just confusion.

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